episode 2: 'Strike Out'
       *✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

   THE NEXT DAY, IT WAS AWKWARD. The first rehearsal of the new New Directions had commenced, but Sam was visibly rusty at the whole teaching thing. "Okay, Diana you're gonna move up to the front during your solo part, just move around everyone else." She tries to, but get bumped by Calvin mid-dance and falls into Frederick on the other side of her. "Just keep going!"

   Diana brushes herself off, trying to get back into the song. "Where are we? I lost my place." Diana huffs, looking at the director hopelessly.

"We're at 'You could make diamonds dull, you are so beautiful.'" Sam sings with the music trying to get Diana back to her place. She hops back in, glancing at the sheet music in her hands every new line. "I need to hear those harmonies guys! Sing out."

   Frederick steps out of the dance, stopping the music. "Mr. Evans, as much as I love 'I See Stars,' it's a little advanced for the five of us. We are each carrying one part and the alto line is a little high for Calvin." He tries to reason, avoiding eye contact with Sam. "Maybe we could go for something more simple? Like a Disney song." Everyone else murmurs in agreement, looking everywhere but at Sam.

   "Okay, um, I'll look at the music we have in storage." Sam's gaze drops, his brow furrows as he thinks.

   "Oo! We could do 'Nowhere to Go But Up' from that Mary Poppins sequel. It's a cute song and has some solo opportunities." A girl stands in the doorway to the choir room in a Cheerios uniform. Everyone just stares at her, confused. "Or something from Newsies could be fun, it might sound a bit weird with only six of us, but-"

"Who are you?" Frederick speaks up, voicing everyone's thoughts.

She lightly smacks her forehead. "How rude of me! I'm Melody Taylor, I'm here to join your glee club." She smiles kindly, walking further into the room. "I couldn't make it to auditions yesterday cause of Cheerios tryouts, but I'm here now!"

Sam awkwardly chuckles, looking back and forth from the stunned kids to the new girl. "Well, we need to run you through an audition first. It's kind of a requirement to join."

"That's fine, I have a song ready." She sets down her bag, taking the middle of the room.

"Would you like everyone to leave? It can be a little nerve racking-"

"No, I perform best with an audience." She interrupts him, pulling up an instrumental track on her phone. "Do you have a speaker?" She asks. Sam points to a plugged in speaker with an aux cord. She plugs her phone in and moves back towards the middle of the room.

"Okay, I'm Melody Taylor and I'll be singing 'Irreplaceable' by Beyoncé. Sam nodded, starting the music and taking a seat in the front row. "Everything you own in the box to the left. In the closet, that's my stuff." She starts, her voice sounding just as confident as she is.

   Melody moves along with the music, shifting her weight to each foot with the beat. Atticus and Megara share an impressed look at she sings through the chorus for the second time.

   "Don't you ever for a second get to thinking you're irreplaceable." She ends the song with some impressive riffs. Everyone claps, a few whoops coming from Frederick.

"That was incredible, Melody. Welcome to New Directions!" Sam says, standing up. She squeals, jumping up and clapping her hands.

"Thank you! Now what song are we learning first?"

{ *✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ: }

   Sam parks on the road outside of the bowling alley. He's hit with a wave of sound as he steps into the building, the loud sound of pins being hit and music playing from a jukebox. Ryan waves and runs up to him. "Hi! You made it!" She pulls him into a hug, his cheeks flaring red. Her arm wraps around his as she pulls him towards the front counter. "We're just waiting for one more person, but we'll probably start without him."

"We?" Sam questions, until he sees the group of teachers in matching, orange bowling shirts like the one Ryan is wearing. "Oh, yeah, we." He furrows his brows, trying to think through what's happening.

"You didn't tell me Evans was the replacement!" Henry Levroy exclaims, throwing up one of his arms. Josephine smacks his shoulder, giving him a warning glare.

   "I think he'll be a great replacement for Dorris." Gavin Kingston, the freshman biology teacher, says. He smiles at Sam.

   "Well hurry up and get your shoes Evans, I wanna start." Henry says, throwing a spare bowling shirt at Sam.

   "We gotta wait for-" Ryan is cut off by Henry.

   "We'll just throw gutter balls for him until he arrives, price to pay for being late."

   Ryan rolls her eyes, grabbing Sam a pair of shoes from the counter and handing them to him. "So why can't Dorris play anymore?" He asks Josephine since Ryan ran ahead to talk with Gavin.

   "She had her newborn over the summer, so after school bowling is a no-go." She says, grabbing a purple bowling ball from a rack and handing it to Sam. "Is that a good weight?"

   Sam nods, shifting the ball in his arms. "How long have you guys been doing this?"

"Around a year now, it's a fun way to relax after stressful days." Josephine and Sam join the rest of the group, sitting down in the booths as Henry types in everyone's names.

"Well, I hope I can keep up." Sam chuckles, tying his shoes and pulling on the bowling shirt he was given.

"I'm sure you can! You seem good at everything." Ryan compliments, taking a seat on the other side of Josephine.

"He won't seem that good after I kick all your asses." Henry smack-talks, grabbing his bowling ball and prepping his roll. He lets it go and gets a strike. He does a little victory dance back to his seat.

   After three rounds, Sam is losing miserably. Everyone else has mainly gotten strikes every round except for Sam and the missing player. "Here, Sam. Try to follow through on the roll instead of just stopping." Ryan advises, sipping on her drink. Sam listens and gets his first spare of the game. Everyone cheers for him, celebrating the improvement.

   "Sorry I'm late guys! Practice ran really late." An east Asian man joins the group, his shoes already kicked off. Sam doesn't recognize him as a teacher at McKinley.

   "Tommy!" Ryan hops up, wrapping the man in a hug.

   "Hey, babe." Tommy pecks Ryan's lips, leaving his arm wrapped around her waist.

   BABE!?

{ *✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ: }

author's note

Hey besties!! I hope you like this chapter, even though it was heavy on the teacher side.

Please remember to comment on the story! I love reading your reactions and thoughts.

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